“We Will Eventually Get There”: NASCAR Aims to Allow Teams Tire Choices During Wet Short Track Races

Nilavro Ghosh | 11/07/2024
Does NASCAR have special Rain Tires for cars?

NASCAR’s wet weather tires came into play twice in three weeks and the response has been largely positive. At the Chicago Street Race, teams were allowed to choose the tire they wanted to run on and when to pit despite the track being damp. It came just a couple of weeks after non-competitive pit stops and only wet weather tires were mandated for the New Hampshire race. 

Now, the sanctioning body aims to have competitive stops under wet conditions on short tracks. NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer said after the Loudon race itself that they would give the choice of tires to the teams. No one quite expected it to happen just a couple of weeks later. However, Chicago was a street course and oval racing in the wet is a different affair.

“Road course racing, we’ve done that for many years now. We have a comfort level and we have some understanding about what that looks like and eventually, we will get there on the short ovals,” Sawyer told NASCAR.

Wet weather racing is becoming popular among the Cup Series drivers thanks to Goodyear and NASCAR’s efforts. After the Chicago Street Race, there were several positive reviews.

Cup Series drivers hail NASCAR’s wet weather efforts

Defending Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney hailed NASCAR’s decision to allow drivers to choose their strategies. The Team Penske man finished P10 after switching to dry tires and he was quite happy about it. Tyler Reddick, on the other hand, failed to win the race despite having better tires. However, he too praised NASCAR’s efforts.

“I think giving us the option to go with the wet tires and the dry tires at the beginning added an element of stress that I don’t think we’re necessarily used to. So that was fun to decide what you wanted to do at the start of the race there.” – Tyler Reddick.

Wet-weather racing adds a lot to the sport and it is something NASCAR has been missing for a long time. Now, there is a solid plan in place and everyone in the sport has reacted to it positively. Gone are the days when bad weather immediately meant the race had to be shortened or postponed.

Post Edited By: Srijan Mandal
Elton Sawyer Ryan Blaney Tyler Reddick

About the author

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Nilavro Ghosh

Nilavro is a NASCAR journalist at The SportsRush. His love for motorsports began at a young age with F1 and spread out to other forms of racing like NASCAR and Moto GP. After earning his post-graduate degree from the Asian College of Journalism in 2020, he has mostly worked as a motorsports journalist. Apart from covering racing, his passion lies in making music primarily as a bass player.

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